Thanksgiving
Reflection

Hearing that I was going
to deliver the Thanksgiving Reflection in today’s service, one of my friends
blurted out: “What are you going to say?
It must be a very short reflection, since you have known only five
Thanksgivings.”

She is right. I have been
in the United States for only five and a half years now. I lived in Europe for
almost double the time I spent here, but there, they do not celebrate
Thanksgiving as you do here. I was born and raised in Korea, but there they do
not celebrate Thanksgiving as you do here, either.

I don’t know if the
executive board of the community of congregations made a wise choice
designating me as preacher today, but I firmly believe that, if we gathered
here today, bringing different traditions of faith, different cultural and
spiritual backgrounds, it is because whoever we are and wherever we are from,
we, the people of faith, share the common spirit, the spirit of Thanksgiving.

Even if we belong to the
same culture or to the same tradition of faith, I do not think that, any one
here came to this place, carrying with her or him the same stories or the same
memories. For some, Thanksgiving is a day of warm memories of feast and lavish
sharing, not only of great food but also of joy and love and care. But for
others, Thanksgiving is rather a time of sore memories of pain, anger and
frustration of a family at odds.

However, we all came here today, from
different traditions and from different walks of life, to affirm and to claim
and proclaim the spirit of Thanksgiving we share as people of faith.

Here, I’d like to share
with you a couple of surprises that I had as a new comer in the U.S.
society.The very first one was the
stores that are open 24 hours a day, but that’s not the surprise I want to talk
about today. As I was trying to adjust to the life of this new world, I was
surprised by so many volunteers in the society, so many good individuals
willing to make a difference in people’s lives. The first volunteers that I met
were the coaches of my two boys’ baseball teams. And since, I never stopped
being surprised and impressed by so many dedicated volunteers involved in
different social programs, such as PADS, Food Pantry, Holiday Gift Basket, and
the Walk-In Ministry which will open its doors in a week from tomorrow. I have
no doubt that it is the spirit of Thanksgiving that you share that makes you
step forward, volunteer, and give, so generously and so faithfully.

But I also had a quite different
surprise, another image of the United States, which, in my opinion, reflects
the opposite of the spirit of Thanksgiving and which, in my opinion, is no less
strongly present in the society. I know I don’t have much time left, so I’ll be
straightforward. We live in fear: the fear of terrorist attack, the fear of
chemical warfare, the fear of nuclear weapons, the fear of pandemic, the fear
of strangers.….We are a nation
consumed by fears of a different kind.

But the fear I want to
talk about today is still another kind, different from those fears that became
stark since September 2001. It is about a fear that pervades our culture and
society, one of the most implicit motives that rule in people’s lives: the fear
of scarcity.

Yes, my sisters and
brothers, I do think that on the opposite side of the spirit of Thanksgiving is
the fear of scarcity, the fear that there is not enough to go around, that we are
going to run short of oil, gas, jobs, time, life, love. We are taught to seize
and hoard and store up anything we can, time, money, resources, goods, even the
goods of our neighbors……. and what do you think the outcome is?

If you haven’t done so
yet, I encourage you to come and visit one of the homeless shelters in the
community. You will be surprised to see so many people, young or old, singles
or households, in need of your help, your care and your attention. And you will
wonder: “How do they end up here?”

We live in a world
stricken with hunger, poverty and conflicts, here in the United States as well
as in other parts of the world. You don’t have to fully agree with me, but I
think that these are our choices, the choices of our government and our society
consumed by the fear of imagined scarcity, for poverty does not come from
nowhere, conflict does not emerge from nothing.

It is in face of this
reality, that we, the people of faith gathered today, proclaiming God’s
goodness and abundance. The texts and prayers we shared today are all from
different traditions, but they all affirm with one voice: God is good; in the
world where God rules, there is abundance; God has endowed the world with
extravagant wealth; there is more than enough to go around.

Thanksgiving is a
reminder and an invitation to step out of the fear of presumed scarcity and
practice, actively, diligently, and creatively, the truth of abundance. There
is enough to go around. Thanks be to God.